PA-31 down KLRD

Don’t want to speculate on a cause,May they Rest In Peace.
 
Sad. RIP

Could it have hit nose first and flipped over?
 
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Damn!

Owned by a non pilot A&P it appears.

But there is another airmen by the same name, but a different middle name who is a student pilot, same PO Box address the plane is registered to

That makes me cringe to even look at, BSBD
 
Heard of fire. Never a good thing, never. Pilot sounded calm on the tape but we don't know what really happened.
2 SOB, came down hard. :(
R.I.P.
Please tell me this wasn't a post-maintenance flight.
 
Sad :(

Lots of energy going into that accident.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
Vmc roll a possibility?
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Possibly. If there was a raging fire in the nacelle it could have possibly damaged the wing/flight controls. The C401 I used to fly had fuel lines directly behind the turbo. I had a leak that almost torched the lines once. Caught it by chance one day when I pulled the cowling to change the oil/take a general look around. That experience evolved into me regularly pulling my cowling and visually checking things out regularly. I'll be watching for the NTSB report. Sad.
 
GRG55 said:
Possible. As noted in post #8, he could have been turning into the problem engine.
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I'm not saying you're saying that, but turning into a dead engine shouldn't be a big ask for an ME pilot imo. Let alone in visual meteo condts.
 
hindsight2020 said:
I'm not saying you're saying that, but turning into a dead engine shouldn't be a big ask for an ME pilot imo. Let alone in visual meteo condts.
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It's not that you can't do it, and you may need to do it depending on the circumstances. But it preferable not to do it for obvious reasons.

We don't know what happened here. But it is possible he turned into the troubled (dead?) engine and couldn't roll it level again, especially if he was trying to slow the plane down to land it. Remember, in a descending turn the angle of attack of the inboard (downward) wing is greater than the outboard wing, so it is closer to the stall. To roll the plane level means increasing the angle of attack on the downward wing to lift it. That also increases the induced drag. So if that wing is close to the stall you have a lot of stuff, adding to the asymmetric thrust/yaw/roll caused by the good engine, working against you to roll the plane level again if you are turning into the dead engine.
 
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hindsight2020 said:
I'm not saying you're saying that, but turning into a dead engine shouldn't be a big ask for an ME pilot imo. Let alone in visual meteo condts.
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I might defer making that comment until I had tried it in the heat of battle.

As I said, on the radio the pilot sounded like he was unruffled, but somewhere between the turns to base and final the airplane made a quick trip to earth.
 
3393RP said:
I might defer making that comment until I had tried it in the heat of battle.

As I said, on the radio the pilot sounded like he was unruffled, but somewhere between the turns to base and final the airplane made a quick trip to earth.
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It’s worth saying gently that is why we’re supposed to do it often enough outside of the frying pan that we’re unconsciously proficient at it.

A significant problem is that many don’t, according to various instructors I’ve asked about their experiences with private twin owners coming to them for flight reviews or unrelated additional training. They often need a significant “work up” on their engine our skills.

Shutting engines down only every two years while less than 100 hours a year, don’t mix well, it seems.

No idea the experience level or proficiency of the accident crew, so making it very clear I’m not speaking about this accident, but in generalities.
 
There's no disputing that some pilots don't answer the bell when things go wrong.

When I speculate about these things, I try to say "This could have happened" instead of saying "The pilot should have known what to do if this is what happened".

It's a rather useless courtesy to the dead, but I think I owe them the distinction between the two.
 
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Rule #1: always fly the airplane. I watched the video. Horrible, horrible crash. The only comfort anyone can have about that is death was instantaneous.

For the plane to impact the ground in that attitude they either had linkage/control issues or didn't follow rule #1. Losing all thrust on one side and the wing being on fire doesn't necessitate ignoring rule #1. I'm afraid panic caused this.
 
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